Walking the London Monopoly board

Friday 18 March 2011

Another crazy idea to cross off the list? It certainly was, and we took the opportunity last Wednesday and headed into London. It was a sunny day but cool; perfect for covering 15 miles along the city's streets. We set off intent on visiting each street of the famous board game, and photographing our evidence at every step of the way.

There they are: the 22 streets on the London Monopoly Board, along with the 4 stations that make up this most famous of board games. A glance at the map reveals two outlying points; Old Kent Road, the token entry from south London, and Marylebone Station, in the north west and a good distance away from the other streets on the board.

We started at Old Kent Road, and the approach to it from Elephant and Castle betrayed its designation as a brown square; down at heel and surrounded by boarded up post-war housing projects, it's a far cry from the places we'd later be seeing.

From here it was over Tower Bridge, and a couple of short hops to Fenchurch Street and eastwards to Whitechapel. From Liverpool Street there is a long sweep of around 5 miles around the periphery of central London, heading to King's Cross and then along Euston Road, eventually reaching Marylebone Station.

Having completed the outliers, we headed for Marble Arch and then down Park Lane before entering Mayfair between the exclusive motor car showrooms.

From this point the streets come thick and fast, and we clocked the remaining 18 or so streets in little over an hour. Our final stop was Fleet Street, and we arrived here just under six hours after our arrival in south London.

As for the other squares? For the prison we chose the Tower of London, while for Go To Jail we witnessed an arrest taking place on the Strand.

Chance? That was easy, with so many bookmaker shops to choose from. While Community Chest was a bit trickier. See which of these two best represent it...

We found an electric company on Fleet Street and the offices of the water works on Pentonville Road. And as for Free Parking? That might be the hardest thing to spot in London, but we did find Aldi's in Old Kent Road offering free parking for their shoppers.

The biggest surprise? Vine Street. It's a tiny dead end behind Piccadilly, and is hard to imagine why the maker of the Monopoly board chose this inconsequential street to sit on a world famous board.

While not the most picturesque walk on offer in London, it certainly covers a diverse mix of neighbourhoods and shows many faces of our capital city. At 15 miles it's not a good choice for a casual stroll, although can easily be broken into two or three separate walks for those with the time to do it. The great news is that there are plenty of places to stop for food and drink along the way. In fact, while we took the option of walking the route and photographing each stop, the more common way of 'doing the Monopoly board' is by using the squares as a route for a massive pub crawl.